Author Topic: Is anyone into foraging (Read 22252 times)

Trevor_D · « **Reply #20 on:** April 07, 2007, 07:59:38 »

We're right on the edge of London (even if we are within the M25), so there's a lot of countryside around. So, elderflowers & berries, brambles, crab apples, sloes, rowan berries, cobnuts, chestnuts, damsons. And mushrooms (but I'm not telling you where!). Last year we had a once-in-a-lifetime crop of ceps. Everyone got dried mushrooms for Christmas!

artichoke · « **Reply #21 on:** April 07, 2007, 09:04:54 »

A professional forager turned up in one of my classes in botanical illustration. He wades through bogs and streams and fields and woods for hours every day, collecting armfuls of wet weeds, and sells them to specialist restaurants. He brought tons of them into the college and you could tell where he'd been by the trails of green stuff along the corridors.

He wanted to learn to illustrate a book he was writing about foraging, but it turned out to be too timeconsuming for him. What we did discover, together, was that he could photocopy his plants very well, and that the results, in black and grey, made stylish and elegant illustrations. However, the library containing the college photocopier filled up with greenfly and snails and bits of greenery, and people complained.

I am dying to see the book - should be out soon.

tim · « **Reply #22 on:** April 07, 2007, 10:12:50 »

Yergh? Yes - but King & Country at the time??

Jeannine · « **Reply #23 on:** April 07, 2007, 10:24:44 »

Hi all, thanks so much for your answers, I do miss my beach foraging a lot and would appreciate any info re coastline foraging. I did look into it and there is none just on the bit I am, it realyy needs a bay,as most clams don't live on the ocean beaches. There are crabs, but a boat would be needed without a bay.

I have had a good search around me but definately no nuts or apples.

We did see a bullace hedgerow a couple of years ago,a great long hedge that was loaded but not ready for picking, but we were just rambling around and we haven't been able to find it since.

Love the story of the photocopy man.

XX Jeannine

tim · « **Reply #24 on:** April 07, 2007, 15:47:52 »

Talk of the Devil?

Jeannine · « **Reply #25 on:** April 07, 2007, 17:37:33 »

Well you would have to chuck that one back in BC, it would no way fit the legal measuring tool . Looks like a good read Tim, where does the magazine come from please.XX Jeannine

flossie · « **Reply #26 on:** April 07, 2007, 18:26:24 »

Today's telegraph - will post it on if you want :)

Jeannine · « **Reply #27 on:** April 07, 2007, 18:30:01 »

Can I buy one somewhere Flossie or is it too late now. I don't want you to have to mail it if I can get one locally. Thank you XX Jeannine

Robert_Brenchley · « **Reply #28 on:** April 07, 2007, 18:33:58 »

Not much lives on open sandy beaches, it's a pretty harsh environment. Razor shells maybe, but you have to be pretty quick to dig them out. Find some sheltered water, and you'll find a lot more.

Jeannine · « **Reply #29 on:** April 07, 2007, 19:29:13 »

That is my point Robert, there are no suitable bays here for static clam digging and I miss that, we used to get Gapers, Softshells, Cockles, Butter, and Littlenecks in the bays. It was so relaxed as they don't move of course, we even dug Goeducks when we wanted to go 3 feet down !! We chased the Razors on the Oregon ocean coast, such fun too, it wasn't so bad once we had the knack but at first it was hilarious . I did quite a lot of research when we first came back with the fisheries folk and was informed there were clams on the West Coast and cockles on the East but further down.

It played a big part in our lives for so many years I really miss it, we were tourist volunteers for Washington State on the beaches explaining what everything was, kids from the Western States had never seen the sea and it was joy to teach them how to dig. They would very often be tiring themselves out digging furiously till we told them bay clams don't move. We ran the clam bakes in the State Park for the campers for years. Plus there is something very basic about watching the movement of tides etc, and the first clams of the season are like the first tiny spuds, so delish...mmmm

XX Jeannine

tim · « **Reply #30 on:** April 07, 2007, 19:32:24 »

Very envious!!

glow777 · « **Reply #31 on:** April 07, 2007, 19:50:18 »

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on April 07, 2007, 18:33:58

Not much lives on open sandy beaches, it's a pretty harsh environment. Razor shells maybe, but you have to be pretty quick to dig them out. Find some sheltered water, and you'll find a lot more.

Razors are one of the tastiest shellfish about. To get them out mix a very salty water solution visit them at low tide and squirt the mix into a hole. They surface to expell the salt hold on to them but dont pull they will struggle for a few seconds then give up and come out easy.

Jeannine · « **Reply #32 on:** April 07, 2007, 20:01:56 »

Hi I hope this comes out, this is a harvest of Razor clams in Oregon

Sorry it is an old picture

greentapestry · « **Reply #33 on:** April 07, 2007, 20:08:32 »

Not as easy on the eye as reading the newspaper but the 'Daily Telegraph' article can be accessed online at : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wine/main.jhtml;jsessionid=YZILHPCDU0AXZQFIQMGCFFOAVCBQUIV0?xml=/wine/2007/04/07/edfront107.xml

glow777 · « **Reply #34 on:** April 08, 2007, 07:24:00 »

A food from the wild section of the forum would be nice.

Could be used to help us identify things, find out when things are in season etc

anyone agree?

G

barkingdog · « **Reply #35 on:** April 08, 2007, 08:17:16 »

Quote from: glow777 on April 08, 2007, 07:24:00

A food from the wild section of the forum would be nice.

Could be used to help us identify things, find out when things are in season etc

anyone agree?

G

I think that's a good idea glow!

barkingdog

CityChick · « **Reply #36 on:** April 08, 2007, 08:30:22 »

A new section sounds a brilliant idea!

I do brambles, elderberries, sloes, chestnuts... but I'm sure there's more I could find and use. Too scared to do mushrooms!!

Oh, and I sometimes forage for greens for our 4 chooks. The grass long since disappeared in our small garden, but I really think they should have something fresh and green. So they get healthy snacks of dandelions, cleavers, fat hen, chick weed, shepherds purse, clover, grass, plantains... ;D

OllieC · « **Reply #37 on:** April 08, 2007, 08:40:51 »

We used to eat a lot of seaweed (my dad had a company selling it dried - "Clokie's Scottish Seavegetables" - before his time!). We had 7 different ones although I can't remember all the names. A couple of them are exposed at low tide, I would've thought Nori would be likely.

You need to find a rocky beach (I think you've identified this already) for it to grip to, but also it's near impossible to remove all the sand with washing if you get it from somewhere sandy. It sometimes grows best near sewage outlets, so check this first!

We were in the North of Scotland so other than the odd bit of plutonium near Dounreay, not much to worry about.

There should be a book though.

djbrenton · « **Reply #38 on:** April 08, 2007, 10:12:58 »

Where we used to live, I tapped silver birch in a woodland each year to make birch syrup and birch wine.

emmy1978 · « **Reply #39 on:** April 08, 2007, 12:26:49 »

Near my nanas house in France you can pick hazelnuts from hedges, very special, also quince ( for jelly)
Round here we find a mushroom that my OH calls 'chicken of the woods' I have no idea about it other than from time to time we lurch off road in terrifying manner so we can climb halfway up a tree to pick it. Tastes divine though so totally worth it. He also forages for mussels, cockles and razor shells on the beach (bleugh)
Oh, and blackberries of course. 8)

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Author Topic: Is anyone into foraging (Read 22252 times)